Schools experiencing problems with maintaining social distancing: Motshekga

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says schools are experiencing problems with maintaining the one metre social distancing.

This is the distance that government has told primary and special school learners to adhere to as they return to full classes.

Motshekga says these are some of the problems she has encountered as she visits different schools to check on progress in returning schools to normality.

The minister who was briefing Parliament’s Basic Eaducation Portfolio Committee on her department’s readiness for schools to reopen, says she’ll present the issue to the National Coronavirus Coordinating Council (NCCC).

“I can say we are experiencing some problems with social distancing. We have a good advisory from the National Advisory Committee that we can still be able to safely reduce the distance and that is what I need to go present at the NCCC,” she adds.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the majority of primary schools in the Northern Cape were not able to return to operating at full capacity.

The Provincial Department of Education has confirmed that not all schools can meet the necessary COVID-19 protocols to accommodate all pupils at once.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, most schools have been operating with a differentiated timetable.

Majority of Northern Cape primary schools not ready to operate at full capacity: